The reality
of many people is that they believe they know God, they go to church on Sunday
morning hear the message and feel that they know God. They may not always obey Gods word, they may
not even read their bibles, or pray. But
they know God their heavenly father, in fact they know if they need something
they can go and pray for it. The problem
is that God is not the kind of Father who is going to just look over the fact
that the only time we come to Him is when we need something, or that the only
reason we go to church is to feel safe about not going to Hell. We need to come to realize that the teachings
of Christ tells us we must obey God. In
fact to truly know the Father we must first know Jesus, and Christ tells us, “If you abide in My word, you are
My disciples indeed.” The key word in
this statement is abide, abide here means to remain, to continue. Christ is saying if you want to be a follower
to know me you must remain with me, continue to be obedient in my word. In fact He tells them if you do then, “you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The church leaders had trouble with statement
about being set free because they thought they were already free.
I dare say
that many of us today have trouble with this thought of being set free from the
bondage of sin. Many of us are very
comfortable with how we live we do not want God telling us we must change. That we may view something or do is
wrong. In fact we feel like we are free,
we have become good at telling ourselves it ok that really isn’t a sin, that
since Christ came we don’t have to worry about certain sins, that living how we
live is just fine with God, after all we come to church we let others know that
and it’s no big deal to God how we spend the rest of our time. In fact the Jewish leaders continue to tell
Christ that they are children of Abraham, and it is through Abraham that they
know God. Christ then tells them this,
“If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came
from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you
not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You
are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want
to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,
for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the
truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And
if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God
hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of
God.”(8:42-47)
Christ is
telling them that they do not know God, they only know evil that their true
father is Satan, that they only live to glorify themselves and not God. You see Christ is the only true path to find
freedom from sin. We are held by the
bonds of sin, we want to believe that just by going to Church and saying a few
words, that we are no longer needing to live in fear of Hell, but the truth is
unless we have given everything to God then we are not living for God. Christ told those around Him, “‘If anyone
keeps My word he shall never taste death.”(8:52) If we want to live for God and know God the
Father then we must keep His word live a life that glorifies God. What Christ is saying is if we want true life,
true freedom then we must give it all to God, we must realize it has nothing to
do with who we know or are related to.
That no matter what we are going to follow and obey. Even if it means being mocked called names,
beaten we are following God and putting all of our trust into Christ Jesus our
risen savior! We are no longer living for sin, we are living for God, We are
asking God to send His Holy Spirit to fall onto us and Guide us and comfort us
and give us freedom we never understood.
I ask you this very important question
are you truly following Christ and know God?
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